dyton mupawaenda
KAMPALA. – A Ugandan government minister is facing criticism after calling those who have died of hunger in his country “idiots”.
Many have deemed Henry Okello Oryem’s comments tone-deaf.
In 2022, more than 2,200 people died of starvation and related illnesses in north-east Uganda, a report by an official human rights body said.
But Mr Oryem argued that given Uganda’s favourable climate and fertile land, people should be able to grow food for themselves.
“It’s only an idiot, a real idiot, that can die of hunger in Uganda,” the state minister for foreign affairs told the NTV Uganda television channel.
“If you work hard, there is land in Uganda. The climate is right in spite [of] climate change. If you make a double effort to make sure that you go out in the morning, you till your land, you plant the seeds, you maintain your plantation, surely, how do you fail then to get food?”
As well as killing many people, the food shortage in the north-east left nearly half-a-million people in “acute hunger”, said the report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission, which was established by the constitution. – BBC.com
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter